Rented Housing Problems

The lack of decent, affordable housing in the Rother Valley is a huge issue; yet the Government has cut the budget for building new affordable homes by 60 per cent.

There has been a massive increase in the number of people who rent their homes privately, including more than one million families with children, but there has also been a rise in problems with renting.

Whilst estate agents can be banned for bad practice, lettings agents are not subject to the same complaints and redress procedures.

I would like to see the introduction of a national register of landlords as well as local authorities granted greater powers to root out and strike off rogue landlords. This would make it easier for local authorities to tackle rogue landlords found to have broken the rules. A system could also be provided for people to get redress when a lettings agent has ripped them off, just like we have for estate agents.